I just had what I believe could be a brilliant idea for the marchers that will be participating in our marches across the country. I was hoping to get Moms and Kids and whoever else would like to show support of labeling to join our group along the parade route. It would be a powerful visual statement to everyone along the route, if people kept jumping out of their seats to join us in marching against GMOs and we ended up with a huge group marching with us by the end of the parade....a huge and loud group. How do you best visually represent a large number of people....A mob that is loud is good....but in a parade....visually represented by a long line of entrants ....how bout a line of supporters several blocks long?????

Even if many people in the town support labeling (most do...and many are strong proponents) how do you get that many people convinced to join in a parade they had only come to watch??? I got to thinking what would entice many to join in....what is irresistible??? We can have people in our group running over and grabbing those who vocalize support....good....we could hand out flyers asking people to get up and march to show their support....good....we might get some that way....but what would seem just too fun to join in????  A CONGO LINE!!!! Who can resist joining a congo line....a loud, enthusiastic, and rambunctious and quickly growing congo line???  "LA - BEL   G  M  O's" ....boom  ......           " LA - BEL     G  M   O'S".....boom. 

To get things started keep some of your members in a line to start of the route marching at the beginning of the parade and distribute whever you can spare spaced out along both sides of the parade route....have one person who is marching working each side of the route handing out flyers and coaxing people to join in....have the people who have been planted in the crowd along the route enthusiastically join in. Each person joining in will be given a warm welcome and honored with a lei or a hat or a button....maybe just a hug. This should create a chain reaction along the route that will feed on itself....if it slows down, instruct members to slip out of the line and get into the crowd again to re kindle the movement of audience members into the congo line. Ask marchers to bring drums to create the congo beat...maybe even some other instruments and percussion.

I am going to give this a try....if anyone else does, let me know how it worked.

kim